CHAMBER NEWS & VIEWS Your customers expect good service

Lynne Conlan is executive director of the South Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce. Call her at 813-634-5111, or email lynne@southhillschamber.com.
My husband and I recently celebrated a milestone anniversary. Since it reflected an obscene number of years together, we were ok with going outside our comfort zone to spend an obscene amount of money on our celebratory dinner. The experience did not start well. We arrived early and were told by the hostess we couldn’t just hang around and needed to come back on time. We did ask if we could sit at the bar to wait. We were told “no” – even as we were looking at empty barstools.
So, we left. We returned on time with a little trepidation about what would be in store for us. The rest of the night was amazing, after we got past the challenges of dealing with the hostess. This establishment is not a chamber member, although I did leave them my business card. If I am successful in recruiting them, our first…or maybe second… conversation will need to be about customer service.
It seems intuitive to me. Customers respond to good and bad customer service from the first person they meet at a business up to the head honcho. If anyone needs any further proof, I found the following statistics from The Zendesk Customer Trends Report of 2021:
• 77 percent of customers report being more loyal to a company that offers a good customer experience when they have an issue.
• 75 percent of customers are willing to spend more to buy from a company that offers good customer experiences.
• 80 percent of customers will go to a competitor after just one bad experience.
Those numbers are up there. Your customers expect good service. And if you cannot supply it, they know someone else can and will. My number one “go-to” is you need to be able to read the room. You’ll be successful if you can read simple body language.
There are dozens of books on the topic, but to save you time. I’ll give you few examples. Crossed arms and legs usually show resistance to what’s being said. Watch for eye contact. None? You’re in trouble. The other person is either disinterested in or bored with what you are saying. If someone you are talking to is looking up and to the right, they are probably lying to you. If you think smiling is a good sign? Not so fast. Is that a smile just on their lips or does that smile move up their faces to their eyes. We’re trying for real smiles not a fake sign of approval. Nodding doesn’t always mean what you think. Slow nodding, you got them on your side. Fast paced nodding coming at you? Stop taking; they are done with you. And you can always try guiding conversations away from disagreements. For that, you have to listen. Remember, you have two ears and one mouth. Use them accordingly.
For the most part, I think we are aware of good customer services – with the exception of that hostess I ran into. Just remember. Be patient, be helpful, be attentive. And be clear in your communication. It’s not only what you say, but also what your customer hears that counts. So don’t be clear, be crystal clear. And keep all that communication positive. No one wants to hear that the product they want is not available. What they want to hear is that you will put an order in right now and you will deliver it the minute it hits your storefront. And above all, have a plan for dealing with problems. You know you going to have them. Also be sure all your employees are trained on customer support during their first or second week on the job. It should be a critical component of the employee onboarding process. And last, but not least, if you have a gate keeper, that is great. They save you time and can help answer many of the questions that owners don’t personally need to answer. Just remember, they are gate keepers, not roadblocks.